


Launch Date

by martialartist816



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Kerberos Mission, SHEITH - Freeform, Season 8, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 08:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16991508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martialartist816/pseuds/martialartist816
Summary: The same day, years apart.





	Launch Date

His dorm was too obvious a place to hide. So was the roof. So he went to the one place no one would think to look for him. It was also, conveniently, the last place anyone wanted to spend time in during that particular evening.

The Kerberos mission was launching tomorrow. Everyone was out partying and drinking (even though the Garrison was supposed to be a dry campus), so the library was all but a ghost town.

It served Keith’s needs perfectly.

He tripped the motion-sensor lights when he walked through the door. Frowning, he turned back to the door panel and took a look inside with his key-card. A few button-pushes later, the lights doused themselves and stayed that way even as he made his way through the stacks. He felt invisible in the rising moonlight that penetrated the wall of windows, which was exactly what he wanted. The shelves of books and rows of computers made an excellent landscape for hiding.

In the corner of the room, under a huge window, Keith found a short table bookended by two plush, retro armchairs facing each other. It was a great spot for seclusion, and the comfortable chair was a bonus.

Keith sunk into one of them, his head pillowed on one arm of it with his legs dangling over the other. The ridiculous size of it dwarfed his body and was arguably more comfortable than the bed in his dorm.

It was soft, and he was far enough away from the festivities for it to be almost quiet.

Almost.

Cheers and loud chatter still made their way down the hallway and into Keith’s head. He wanted to think of anything else besides the parties, besides the reason _for_ the parties. Why would he celebrate the night before he was going to lose the only thing he cared about _again_? Why would anyone?

The rocket launching the next morning would not be a happy sight for him.

At the sound of the library door opening, Keith drew in a sharp breath through his nose and lifted his head. With any luck, the person would see that there was nothing going on in there and leave. If it was a faculty member looking for stray students such as himself, maybe they’d gloss over the little nook Keith sequestered himself into and move along.

Then again. Keith figured he didn’t care if he got caught out past curfew. A lecture and walk-of-shame back to his dorm would be a good time killer to get his mind off of what it seemed to be anchored to.

Footsteps slowly, casually approached from between the stacks. Keith watched the silhouette of a figure round the corner. The fluorescent light from the hallway cast a tall shadow in his direction.

A head a fluffy black hair poked out from behind the last shelf.

“Keith. There you are.”

Of course it was Shiro. The universe hated Keith, didn’t it?

“How the hell did you even find me here?” He drew himself upright on the chair, arms coming around his knees.

“It wasn’t easy, let me tell you.” Shiro emerged and plopped himself down into the adjacent chair, uninvited. The plush fabric swallowed up even his stature. “First your dorm, then the roof, and I checked the garage to see if my car was missing. When all those were ruled out, I switched up my tactic and came to the last place you’d think you’d be found.”

“Huh,” Keith said. Shiro didn’t even sound mad that he was breaking campus rules for the nth time.

“The lights aren’t working. S’that your doing?”

Keith nodded.

“Clever. So what are you doing holing yourself up in here anyway?”

Keith’s eyes met Shiro’s, and he furrowed his brows. Shiro was unjustly--uncharacteristically--calm, like he didn’t know he was going to be launched to the edge of the solar system in a few short hours.

“Do you really need to ask?” Keith countered. “I feel like it should be the other way around.”

Shiro smiled like it was any other night but _that_ night. “I’m going to be spending the next few months with the same two men twenty-four seven. I’d rather spend my time until then with fresh faces.”

“And my face is better than Adam’s?” Keith asked, and instantly regretted it. He knew about their fight. That was an unfair nerve to lash at. Shoulders coming up, Keith added a hushed, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Keith. And, to answer your question, yes.”

Keith’s gaze shot back over to Shiro, who seemed to mellow out his nonchalant facade to reveal something more solemn underneath.

“You could be out with all your friends right now, living it up, saying goodbye…” Keith trailed off, thinking the question was obvious between the lines. But Shiro only looked at him silently, so he continued. “Why are you here with me?”

“I think I’m going to miss you the most, Keith.” Shiro said it quietly, like the library was still open and there were people around to overhear. But it was just the two of them.

Keith bit his tongue against a bitter ‘why me?’ and instead asked, “Are you nervous?”

Shiro shrugged and turned his head to look out the window, eyes angling up to the stars like they always were. It was that look that kept Keith so determined to find out what he saw out there.

“Not really,” Shiro mused. “It’s an important mission if we want to take the next steps in space exploration. Not to mention it’s the experience of a lifetime.”

“But even with your arm,” Keith said, “your doctors are afraid something bad might happen while you’re out there.”

“There are always risks on missions like this,” Shiro reasoned. “If I let that stop me every time, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

“You’re not even scared…” Keith whispered. He lowered his head onto his folded arms, suddenly unable to look at Shiro’s face. His eyes fell to the floor before they slipped shut. His fingers clutched on the sleeve of his jacket. “You might not come back, but you’re not even scared…”

He heard movement, then felt Shiro’s presence much closer to him. The chair groaned under the extra weight when Shiro sat on the arm of it next to Keith. A big, warm hand rested on top of his head.

“Hey,” Shiro said so softly it just made everything worse. “You don’t have to be scared for me.”

“I have a lot to lose if you don’t come back.” Keith was glad his voice was muffled by his clothes. He couldn’t stand to hear how broken it sounded.

“I promise I will come back, Keith.” The hand on his head gently, rhythmically stroked down his hair. “If for no other reason than to make sure you haven’t burnt this place down in my absence.”

Keith buried his smile against his sleeve. He knew of the real possibility that he might actually burn the place down when Shiro was gone. Shiro, his impulse control, but also a catalyst that set Keith aflame in ways he didn’t care to admit. Unwilling to let Shiro see his face, Keith turned into him and threw his arms around Shiro’s waist, face buried against his side.

Shiro tensed for less than a second. Two arms were around his shoulders an instant later.

“I don’t want to say goodbye tomorrow,” Keith mumbled.

“That’s okay,” Shiro promised, lowering himself down to Keith. “We can say goodbye right here, like this.”

…

Just as the sun dips below the horizon, the hum of an engine whirs up the hill.

Keith doesn’t even have to turn around to recognize the sound of Shiro’s hoverbike skidding to a halt just below the Black Lion.

But when he looks down, his smile is radiant and permanent. Shiro lifts his goggles and waves.

“Wanna go for a ride?”

“Absolutely.” Keith stands and meets Shiro’s gaze with a challenge in his eyes. “But you have to catch me.”

He ducks into a starting position, and Shiro re-rights himself on the bike. The engine revs, and Keith’s body uncoils like a spring. There’s nothing but air beneath him--for a split second, he’s the freest he’s ever been--until he lands perfectly in the passenger seat of the bike.

His arms wrap around Shiro’s waist just in time for the speed to pick up, and they’re kicking up dirt on a desert path that hasn’t been used in years.

Keith hangs onto Shiro as he leans his head back. The wind pushes his bangs out of the way so he has a full, unadulterated view of the emerging stars above. Behind them, the Black Lion fades on the horizon.

Shiro stops at a place that is familiar to both of them. Even as the bike lowers to a stationary position on the ground, even as Shiro straightens out to take the goggles off, Keith holds onto him and refuses to let go. He never wants to let go. Shiro laughs, his human hand resting on top of Keith’s.

“Lance and Allura are on a date right now,” Keith informs him, like it was any surprise. His chin rests on Shiro’s shoulder, and he talks into his ear.

“They’re spending the pre-launch right,” Shiro says.

“Is there really anything better to do the night before a launch?”

Shiro’s shrug jostles Keith from his comfortable position. His hold slackens, and Shiro uses the chance to turn around in Keith’s arms and face him. “I don’t know. Hide in an obscure corner of a library and avoid the person who wants to see you most?”

“You’re still salty about that.” Keith shakes his head, but the grin remains. “You found me anyway, despite my best efforts.”

“I’ll always find you, Keith.”

Keith blinks rapidly to keep away moisture that would make him a little more emotional than he feels like being right now. He rests a hand on Shiro’s cheek, counting the stars that reflect in his eyes.

“Hey,” Shiro says so softly that Keith falls in love all over again. “You don’t have to say goodbye this time.”

“I don’t,” Keith answers. His thumb traces the edges of Shiro’s scar. “Everything I love is going up with me tomorrow.”

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to scream about that ending with me on [my tumblr](http://regiaam.tumblr.com/)


End file.
